Head Start in Oneonta

You've probably heard about the sequester cuts in funding to Opportunities for Otsego for Head Start, which it administers. The news made the front page of the Star, above the fold.  Head Start money doesn't go through the County (as much Federal money does), so I'm just a spectator to this tragedy. Job losses, families in unnecessary turmoil.

I'm also a citizen of a democracy, so I wrote our Senators and Congressman. Here's what I wrote:

My anger and frustration with the sequester came to a head yesterday when I discovered that, due to the reduction in Federal grants funding Head Start, Oneonta Head Start will have to lay off eight people, and deny day care service to thirty two families, starting on July 1.

My wife and I have worked with Head Start, in a number of ways, for decades. These are people who work hard for pitifully low wages, and do a lot of good for a lot of kids. For the most part, these folks are holding on the best they can, economically. Those who are laid off will struggle with unemployment, and many of those families will fall (or be pushed?) into poverty. The families who depended on the high-quality day care will have their lives transformed, and not in a good way. There is no job-creating going on here – just the opposite.

Congress and the Administration created the sequester with the thought that fear of the consequences of really draconian and irrational cuts would motivate them to cut a deal to avoid the pain. The truth is, the sequester is designed to focus the pain on the most vulnerable, the least resilient, the least able to adapt and adjust.

This is not the way we serve our constituents.  Please exhibit the courage and leadership necessary to right this wrong.

I sent that off on Wednesday; today I read that Congress has manged to find a way to lessen the impact of the sequester on themselves and other middle and upper class Americans. This morning, I wrote to our representatives again:

You have found a way to shuffle sequestered funds in the Transportation Department so that Senators and Congressmen, and other middle and upper class Americans, don't have to wait as long at the airport.

Now it's time to find the same flexibility in the Department of Health and Human Services so that the Oneonta Head Start doesn't have to lay of 8 people and leave 32 families without daycare starting July 1.

It's important for you to understand that, here in the real world, extraordinary action on the behalf of the privileged and lack of action on behalf of the vulnerable and disadvantaged looks just like that.

Please do the right thing.

If you have a moment, please get involved. As usual, many voices can make it work right.